Chelsea Agree £38m Deal For FC Porto Striker Hulk

Chelsea have agreed a £38m fee with FC Porto for their Brazilian striker Hulk, as Roman Abramovich continues an extravagant summer splurge.

The Brazilian striker has been scouted by the Champions League winners over the past year, and the deal was being negotiated as far back as three weeks ago - prior to the Blues' Munich final.

Although the Portuguese giants had informed the press of a €100m buy-out clause, they were aware that yielding half of the figure would have been more realistic, but have accepted less after a hefty opening offer from Abramovich.

Should the transfer be concluded, Hulk will become the joint-second most expensive player in British football, behind £50m Chelsea striker Fernando Torres and level with Manchester City's Sergio Aguero.

The 25-year-old has scored 57 goals in 91 games in the past two seasons in Iberia, and has been linked with a number of top clubs since he rose to prominence in the 2008/09 season.

Despite conjecture continuing over who Chelsea's next manager will be, owner Abramovich has wasted no time in reinforcing the squad.

Marko Marin will join the club in the summer for £6.5m from Werder Bremen, while Ligue 1 Player of the Year Eden Hazard confirmed he would be moving to west London on Monday, for a reported £32m fee.

The obvious desire would appear for Hulk, Juan Mata and Eden Hazard to support Torres in a four-pronged forward line costing £143.5m.

Roberto di Matteo, who guided the club to an FA Cup and European Cup double, has been in the Bahamas this week playing in the PFA BA Legends tournament, but Abramovich appears reluctant to promote him from interim to permanent manager.

While the Italian achieved two cup wins, Chelsea eventually finished sixth in the Premier League - their worst domestic performance since the 2000/01 season.

Meanwhile Uefa have finally confirmed John Terry will serve a three-match ban for his red card in the club's Champions League semi-final at Barcelona.

The Chelsea captain kneed Barca's Alexis Sanchez off the ball with the score at 0-0 and missed the final against Bayern Munich. However he shamelessly gained dispensation to lift the trophy despite making no contribution on the night.